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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2145#2279] |
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Somehow, this series didn't get too great of reviews. I was skeptical about picking it up but the synopsis won me over and so I grabbed it and started watching. Loved every minute of it! Art, Animation & Character Designs Artwork is just excellent! Details were well done, colors were rich and backgrounds were nearly top-notch. However, the use of CG is poorly done here.... almost an eye sore. For sure, the artwork could've done much better without it. Character designs were top-notch as well. All the characters were unique and none suffered the "clone" syndrome (look identical but the color of the hair). And man, do we have a handful of characters! My favorite for sure is Hamyuttsu. She's one bad-assed chic! My idea GF! :) Music The OP seeemed strangly out of place here. It sounded like a piece out of say... a "Munsters" flick or something like "Edward Scissor Hands"... if you know what I mean. It just didn't seem to fit this series. It wasn't bad at all, just a bit out of place. The soundtrack had mostly "dramatic" pieces here and there such as you would hear from an orchestra set.... but mostly on the lighter side. As for the ED, it was much better than the OP but a bit subdued. It had female vocals with a light techno feel to it. Still, not bad but I think they could have found something a bit better for the series. Series and Episode Story This series is now on my long list of favorites. The plot is what really got me sucked into this one. There's a number of things that make this series worth watching and really enjoyable. First, the plot. We have a pretty detailed and sometimes complex plot.... you'll realize it as the series progresses. It's well done and the characters are really woven into the story. What's really interesting is how it gets deeper and many times spiritual or religious to the point that it becomes nearly a tale on a cosmic proportion. Awesome! Now of course, the plot is not flawless and perfect. Few things are left unanswered but by the end of the series, a lot of things are explained.... which does satisfy the most curious of viewers. Speaking of characters, this series have a ton of them. Most are interesting, with their own talents (magic) and characters. With so many characters, you really have to pay attention to who's who and on what side. One of the things I really enjoyed about this series is that when main characters die, they really do die! The writers weren't shying away from killing off great characters throughout the series. I do have a few issues however. One, the way the plot reveals some things near the last few episodes, it almost made me feal cheated out of a potentially amazing ending... or the least, a powerful climatic clash. Instead, it gears away and into a more unworldy epic battle(s). This wasn't bad but, but it also wasn't what I was anticipating. Second, my favorite character.... ahhh, i'll not say it. Suffice it to say, I was bummed. Overall, this series is just a great series to sit through. It's action packed, engaging story and great characters. The only real issue was the CG.... serious eye-sore. But let that not stop you from watching! Last updated Tuesday, May 03 2011. Created Tuesday, May 03 2011. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Forbin
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[series:2145#1573] | ||||||
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I watched one episode of this and dropped it. Library wars crossed with Black Lagoon
Last updated Friday, December 04 2009. Created Friday, December 04 2009. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2145#628] | ||||||
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(Half of one episode watched): The impression which I quickly got from episode one of Book of Bantorra was one of complicated supernatural mumbo-jumbo which I'm not inclined to put much effort into making sense of. Nobody and nothing grabbed my attention--except perhaps the laughable CG animation of the heroes' boat navigating a minefield of sorts. The flamboyant outfits and the variety of skills and weapons wielded by the good guys reminded me of X-men (except that this was nowhere near as good). Half an episode was all I could take; the fact that this show was making little effort to explain what was going on, that the bad guys were 100% evil and that fact was being sledgehammered into me lest I choose sides on my own, and that the show was struggling with little success to be cool rather than plausible, all convinced me that I could swiftly write this series off. Last updated Sunday, October 11 2009. Created Sunday, October 11 2009. | ||||||||
| Watch | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2145#1552] |
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About all I can say of resuming my watch of Book of Bantorra from over four years ago is "meh". Having an influential crime fighting group against an evil syndicate (in this case, a fanatic cult) is nothing new in anime for me and my indifference further rises with the majority of the characters in this series lacking any fleshing out beyond being two-dimensional archetypes you would expect out of action titles like this. It does have some unique ideas that allow it to keep your engagement such as the title's concept of people's souls being stored in stone tablets, both Armed Librarians and the Shindeki Church having varying magical abilities, the title's historical setting and some shady developments with Hamyuts despite being the leader of the Armed Librarians. The fourth mentioned detail was the only real thing that hooked me as the show makes no effort at maintaining subtlety in showing that Hamyuts isn't exactly right in the head with her actions and that she has ulterior motives, with the series even devoting time in later episodes to explore her past and any shady developments she has. But even this plot thread lost its intrigue for me when the show's final 4-5 episodes pull plot twists that are quite out there for the scale of the show up to this point, was lacking much in the way of foreshadowing, the enemy faction seen throughout the course of the series being irrelevant (especially as a character introduced in early episodes whom we assume is a major antagonist gets killed off early) and relying quite heavily on deus ex machina to resolve things. About the only thing the show does right to get my praise are its pleasing visuals that show great detail and vivid color in the designs of scenery and characters, female designs being quite nice on the eyes with some characters like Hamyuts and Noloty having revealing attire that shows off their... um, appeal without going overboard as a good number of ecchi titles love to do. Many of the characters have differing weapons and magical abilities they show off in battle making for a nice number of fight scenes that offer up unique choreography and abilities from the characters don't feel like they are reused at all throughout Bantorra. The only low points of the visuals for me were occasions of animation shortcuts being employed and moments of unconvincing fluid movement. Praises aside for the visuals though, Book of Bantorra felt like it was playing things safe with what it had to offer for its premise. Much of its cast are nothing but archetypes and the plot for it is mostly nothing special and gets messy in quality for later episodes. The only engaging element to the series with the mystery of Hamyuts' character even suffers in later episodes thanks to the sloppy developments that the final episodes introduce. There are better quality action anime to get into that dare to do more with what they got than what Book of Bantorra offers. Last updated Wednesday, February 26 2014. Created Saturday, October 10 2009. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| 戦う司書 The Book of Bantorra | http://www.bantorra.com/ |
